Story by
Phillies' season ends with the pain of another early postseason knockout
- Story by
- Phillies' season ends with the pain of another early postseason knockout
Phillies' season ends with the pain of another early postseason knockout originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
ATLANTA – While the Phillies tried to extend their season Thursday night against the Atlanta Braves at Truist Park, their Delta 757 charter sat 23 miles away at Hartsfield-Jackson International airport.
Advertisement
A win would send the Phillies west, to Los Angeles and a second straight National League Division Series matchup with the Dodgers.
A loss would send them home, to Philadelphia and another long, cold winter.
It didn't take long to figure out which way the Phillies would be heading. Aaron Nola was tagged for three runs in the first inning. The Phillies never recovered. Their season came to an end in a 6-2 loss to the Braves in Game 3 of the NL Wild Card Series.
For just the second time in franchise history, the Phillies qualified for the postseason for a fifth straight year, matching a team-high streak first reached from 2007 to 2011. The Phils won the World Series in 2008, but have not since. They made a surprising run to the World Series in 2022 but were beaten by the Houston Astros in six games. They were a win away from returning to the World Series in 2023 only to collapse and lose Games 6 and 7 of the NL Championship Series at home to Arizona. Since then, they have gone the wrong way, losing in the Division Series (their first round of play) in 2024 and 2025 and now in the Wild Card Series.
Advertisement
"It's always frustrating," Kyle Schwarber said in the quiet of the losing clubhouse. "From every postseason I've been in, it always hurts when you're not the last team standing.
"It's just as frustrating this year as it was last year and the year before that."
As the October defeats have mounted, the team's core group of high-priced veteran players has gotten older.
Schwarber, always the optimist, insisted that the team's championship window is still wide open. So did J.T. Realmuto, saying, "There's definitely the talent in this room to win. If you watched us play all year, no matter who we played, we weren't outmatched. It's about execution. It's not about the age and the years. We know we still have the talent to win."
Advertisement
Over on the other side of the clubhouse, Bryce Harper didn't sound so sure.
He was asked what gives him faith that the team can still get to where it wants to go.
"Yeah, I don't know," he said. "It's going to be a long offseason, obviously. I have trust in the organization and the people that are in charge. We'll see where we go."
Heading into the offseason, the Phils have many questions, first and foremost: Will Don Mattingly return as manager in 2027? He took over, with an interim tag, for Rob Thomson after the team got off to a 9-19 start in April.
The Phillies played .590 ball (79-55) under Mattingly, but president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski tried to hire Alex Cora when he let Thomson go, and he seems likely to try again in the coming weeks. Stay tuned.
Advertisement
Mattingly would not touch the topic after the game. Schwarber, Realmuto, Nola and Trea Turner all said they'd like to see Mattingly return. Harper declined to talk about the topic.
If Cora comes on board, he will be taking over a team of highs and lows, one with an inconsistent offense that is seemingly up one month (see August) and down the next (see September). He will be taking over a team that lacks pitching depth, both in the starting rotation and the bullpen. Both weaknesses reared their head in recent weeks as the Phils had to scramble to make the playoffs, using ace Zack Wheeler on the final day of the regular season, a circumstance that prevented him from starting Game 1 of the postseason.
Wheeler mentioned the team's overall inconsistency when asked if he believed the Phils still had the talent to make a deeper postseason run next year.
"Consistency in every group, I think that's what will get us there," he said. "We were kind of inconsistent throughout the year. Maybe we were hitting, but we weren't pitching well. Maybe we were pitching well and we weren't hitting well. We just have to put it all together throughout the majority of the season.
Advertisement
"We're hungry, that's for sure. We just didn't get the job done."
The Phils had chances to win the series.
Jesus Luzardo pitched well in Game 1 and they held a 3-2 lead in the seventh. With few trusted arms in his leaky bullpen, Mattingly went to his All-Star closer, Jhoan Duran, in the bottom of the seventh. Duran got through that inning but gave up the lead on a three-run homer in the eighth and the Phillies lost, 5-3.
They bounced back to win a wild Game 2 Wednesday in 10 innings on the strength of three late home runs and the clutch pitching of Cristopher Sanchez, Alex McFarlane and Andrew Painter. They seemed to have momentum heading into Game 3.
Advertisement
But the momentum disappeared quickly as Nola had big trouble throwing strikes.
Just three of the right-hander's first 13 pitches to open the game were strikes. He fell behind Ronald Acuna Jr., and Matt Olson, the Braves' Nos. 2 and 3 hitters, with 3-0 counts and eventually walked both. He then fell behind Michael Harris II, 2-0. Harris hit the next pitch, a sinker down and out of the zone, over the right-field wall for a three-run homer.
"I think he was just a little too careful," Realmuto said of Nola. "I don't think he was way off because he was just missing. They just did a good job of not chasing and making him come in the zone. When a lineup is good like that and they get on a roll, it's tough to get them out when they're not chasing."
Nola did not make it through the second inning. Tim Mayza got the final out of the frame before handing off to Wheeler in the top of the third. The Phillies' brain trust opted not to start Wheeler on three days' rest. He'd never done that before. Also, Wheeler admitted that at this point of the season, he wasn't feeling 100 percent. It was decided that Nola's best chance of succeeding would be to stay in a starter's role.
Advertisement
"We're going to need Nola in this game," Mattingly said before the game. "Starting him gives us the best version of him."
The Phillies weren't sure Wheeler would even be able to pitch until he tested himself by playing catch before the game. He ended up pitching four innings but was not particularly sharp. He gave up three hits and walked three. One of those walks turned into a run when Ozzie Albies stroked a two-run homer in the fourth to give the Braves a 5-0 lead.
"We felt Nola was on solid rest," Mattingly said after the game. "If he could get us into the game at all, we'd have Zack after that. Obviously, it didn't go well."
Atlanta used lefty Ray Kerr as an opener. He pitched 3 1/3 innings and did not allow a run. The only hit Kerr gave up was a single to Schwarber in the first inning. Kerr then struck out Harper.
Advertisement
Grant Holmes, Robert Suarez, Didier Fuentes, Dylan Dodd and Chris Sale finished off the Phillies. Sale, the Braves' ace lefty who started Game 1, entered with two outs in the eighth and struck out Harper.
Before the 2019 season, Harper signed a 13-year, $330-million contract with the Phillies. He came looking for a parade down Broad Street. Eight years later, he boarded a flight back to Philadelphia, still looking.
